SuperBowl XLI

So who will win tonight? Tony Dungy’s Indianapolis Colts or Lovie Smith’s Chicago Bears? I like both teams, and both coaches have so much class. But I’m leaning slightly toward the Colts simply because I’d like to see Peyton Manning win tonight. Speaking of Peyton, did anyone see the video of him as a kid performing in a dance recital? It was shown while his dad was interviewed by JB. That’s not the the video Super Bowl quarterbacks want getting out into the public domain. He’s going to get a lot of ribbing for that one.

After two of Manning’s passes almost being picked off, his third was finally intercepted. The game has only been underway for just a few minutes, and the Bears already have complete control. The Colts had better get their game in gear.

With the rain coming down in buckets and just six minutes left in the second quarter, the Colts take the lead for the fist time 16-14.

There’s only a little more than a minute left in the the first half and the Colts turned over the ball just to have the Bears fumble the ball and the Colts recover just moments later.

Regarding the commercials, in my opinion the only memorable one so far is the Chevy commercial where the machine has a nightmare that he drops a screw and gets banished. But to be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about that one.

Not only is Prince is performing his halftime show in the rain, he appears to be singing live. Now that I think about it, would he be singing live? With all the electric guitars and stuff, it would probably be too dangerous to perform in the rain. But all the lights on the stage are on, so who knows.

Since the start of the second half, the Colts have been running the Bears ragged. However, the score is still just 22-17 Colts. There’s 13 minutes and change left in the final quarter, forever in football, which means anything can happen, especially when only five points separate the two.

The Colts intercepted and ran the ball back to score. It’s now 29-17. Jim Nance said that no team has ever come back from a deficit larger than 10 points to win. The Bears are now down by 12. But, really, that means nothing.

The Colts intercepted again! Wow. The Colts are on fire, but there’s a flag.

And let me heap on the praise for CBS because the network was one of the organizers of the “Baghdad Bowl” for our troops serving in Iraq.

CBS analyst Randy Cross told the paper that he pitched the idea after visiting a U.S. military base in Afghanistan last year. The idea, USA Today wrote, is for U.S. soldiers in Iraq — men and women — to don Colts and Bears jerseys for a touch football game that, he joked, “will give you an early indication” of the Super Bowl winner.

Suzanne Smith, who is Cross’ director on regular NFL coverage and will go to Iraq with him Monday, told USA Today that this bowl will be creative: Vehicles will be lined up as bleachers, she said, and for player gear — “Maybe they’ll wear their helmets.”

Smith told USA Today that the military is helping in scouting locations, noting that one site was “safer.”

The game balls, similar to Super Bowl balls, will be emblazoned with “Baghdad Bowl” lettering, the paper reported. After all, Cross is reported as saying, “The idea is to bring some degree of normalcy to the troops.”

What a great idea. I’m sorry I missed it. Hopefully someone captured some of it on video and will post it.